The Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation pledged $20 million toward funding for the first phase. She challenged UMKC and the community to come up with the other $70 million needed to finish the work.

A news release from UMKC said that the plan calls for moving the university's Conservatory of Music and Dance to a location in the Crossroads District. Other university-based arts programs would be moved to the site in other stages of the project.

"The conservatory is a vibrant community resource and we believe the downtown arts campus project has the potential to bring excitement and broad revitalized economic development to downtown, to the Kauffman Center, and to other arts groups located downtown," said Julia Irene Kauffman, who is chairman and CEO of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation.

She said she thinks the conservatory's current site on the campus is too crowded.

"Well, I went to school there seven years ago," she said. "The halls were filled with bodies. They were even up and down the stairs."

"It brings us all downtown. We're living downtown. We're working downtown. Getting jobs with the Kansas City Ballet, with the Symphony, performing down here," said UMKC Conservatory dancer Appie Peterson.

UMKC Chancellor Leo Morton said he thinks some of the people who were at Wednesday's announcement may be driven to help donate money toward the additional $70 million.

"I kept their names," he said.

The Missouri Legislature has also passed a law offering state matching funds for big university projects, but that law did not come with funding.